Right now, University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson is the world’s most-read Canadian author. Given that he also narrates his own audiobooks, it’s possible he may currently be buzzing through more earbuds than any other Canadian voice.

Although he first rose to international prominence as an opponent of gender-neutral pronouns, Peterson’s new book, 12 Rules for Life, is largely his take on what is most “valuable” in life. And it is tearing up the charts, with Penguin Random House already deeming it one of their top performers.

Below, the latest stats on the world’s most popular piece of CanLit.

It’s currently Amazon’s most read (and most sold) nonfiction book As the unstoppable online force that has taken a merciless scythe to brick-and-mortar booksellers, Amazon generally has its finger on the pulse of what people want to read. And this week, 12 Rules for Life is not only the “most sold” work of nonfiction, it’s also the “most read,” a measure of how many people are currently reading electronic editions of the book. It’s the first Canadian book to rank this highly on Amazon since Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale experienced a 2017 resurgence inspired, in part, by its adaptation as a Hulu series. Most notably, 12 Rules for Life is also Amazon’s number two top-selling book of 2018 so far. The only title to outrank it is Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury, an account of the first months of the Trump White House.

It’s number one on Audible Peterson’s self-narrated audiobook is the number one most popular book on Canadian Audible, and the number three most popular on U.S. Audible. The book is easily outranking the two other usual Canadian darlings of the non-fiction section: Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell. Pinker’s new book Enlightenment Now, which came out about the same time as 12 Rules for Life, is 38 on U.S. Audible and 31 on in Canada. It’s even dominating the cutthroat self-help category, outranking both You Are a Badass and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.

This is seriously New Zealand’s sixth most popular book right now.Amazon

Publisher’s Weekly has it as their number one bestselling hardcover The industry standard for tracking book sales are the lists curated by Publisher’s Weekly. They get their data from BookScan, a data service that tracks sales numbers for all the usual places where people buy books: Walmart, Barnes&Noble, Amazon and the like. In their “hardcover nonfiction” category, Peterson is currently on top, with 19,593 copies sold last week, and 173,133 copies total since Jan. 1. The book is also number eight overall, although it’s failed to crack the top ten lists in Australia, the U.K. and New Zealand. Kiwis would apparently rather read the North American Warbler Fold-Out Guide than hear what a Canadian professor has to say.

Somehow, it’s not even included on The New York Times bestseller list For years, The New York Times bestseller list has faced criticism for being an opaque, arbitrary catalogue that doesn’t actually reflect whether a book is “bestselling.” These criticisms have particular currency given that 12 Rules for Life isn’t even on their list. The Toronto Star took an in-depth look into why this is, and The New York Times had a pretty weak excuse. “We do not include books published in Canada only,” a New York Times representative told the Star. The statement is demonstrably untrue; 12 Rules for Life is published and sold across the United States.

Peterson still has a ways to go to beat Robert Munsch There is no curated all-time leaderboard of bestselling Canadian authors, but the number one spot is likely children’s author Robert Munsch. His catalogue of 50 books has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, and they’re still ubiquitous at children’s bookstores around the world. Love You Forever alone has sold nearly 8 million copies. Compare that to Malcolm Gladwell. Despite dominating airport bookstores for years, Gladwell’s most popular creation, Blink, has sold about 2.7 million copies. Margaret Atwood is also a likely leading contender for all-time bestselling Canadian author, although figures on her total sales are difficult to find. In 2017 alone, A Handmaid’s Tale sold in excess of 500,000 copies; easily more than the combined career book sales of a well-attended Toronto author’s party. Ultimately, for Peterson to have a chance at the the title as most-read Canadian of all time, he would need about a half-dozen more books, as well as a pretty consistent stay in the limelight.

Robert Munsch. Not pictured: Millions upon millions of dollars.Postmedia File

Dead people are still beating Peterson in overall new sales The book world is strange. A book can become a cultural phenomenon dominating headlines and cable news, and yet it can still be outsold by authors who have been dead for decades. While Peterson continues to dominate non-fiction rankings, he’s just short of the podium when ranked against fiction and children’s books. On the Publisher’s Weekly list of overall book sales, three separate Dr. Seuss books were outranking 12 Rules for Life: Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. As of press time, both Amazon and Publisher’s Weekly rankings also have Peterson’s book being outsold by A Wrinkle in Time, the 1962 Madeleine L’Engle novel that just got a film adaptation. If 12 Rules for Life is to become a contender for all-time bestselling nonfiction, the book will need to have staying power. That all depends on whether readers see 12 Rules for Life as a book merely for the world of 2018, or adopt it as a timeless tome to be passed down through the generations. The brass ring in this category is How to Win Friends and Influence People, the self-help guide first published in 1936 that remains a must-read for virtually anyone who wears pumps or a tie to work.

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